Café con Libros: A Bookstore for the Intersectional Community

The borough of Brooklyn, New York is well known in the American mind. It is home to the Brooklyn Bridge, a memorable landmark that many Americans will think of first when Brooklyn is brought up in conversation. It also holds the Brooklyn Book Festival in early October where authors from around the world gather to talk about and sell their books. But Brooklyn is much more than landmarks and events. As of the 2020 Census, over two million people live in this New York borough, tying Brooklyn with Chicago as America’s third largest city. 

Within the vast population of Brooklyn, the various amounts of communities in the borough have been fluctuating. In the last decade, Brooklyn’s Asian population had a 42.5% increase, the Black population had an 8.7% decrease, the white population an 8.4% increase, and the Hispanic and Latinx population a 4.1% increase. Even with all of these fluctuations, the main two communities within Brooklyn are still the White and Black communities.

With the continuous amounts of fluctuation in the Brooklyn population, how can these communities connect? How can they find a place where they can connect with others within their community? With bookstores of course! Brooklyn is home to over 25 different bookstores, but one stands out from the rest.  

On the corner of Prospect Pl and Rogers Ave, sits Café con Libros. A Black-owned, intersectional feminist, and LGBTQIA+ friendly bookstore. Painted a welcoming blue with plants slightly obscuring the awning, Café con Libros is a one-of-a-kind intersectional feminist, Black owned, LGBTQIA+ friendly bookstore.

Tim Cresswell talks a lot about what place is, and what makes it a place, specifically saying, “They [places] are all spaces which people have made meaningful. They are all spaces people are attached to in one way or another.” Kalima DeSuze wished to create a welcoming community space where there is no judgement or expectations.

“I also wanted a space where it’s okay to be brilliant and intellectual, and still be from the hood and of the hood. I have that combination, and we do exist. I wanted to create that space for young girls and boys in the upcoming generation,” says DeSuze. And so Kalima DeSuze opened the bookstore, Café con Libros (Coffee with Books) with her husband Ryan Cameron. 

Café con Libros is unapologetically home to numerous Black, feminist titles for “baby feminists”, “budding feminists” all the way up to the Young Adult Fiction novels and Nonfiction novels we know and love. Café con Libros also has a Feminist & Bookish Monthly Book Subscription that, as of right now, only includes books as to prioritize affordability and sustainability that will arrive right to your door! They also have an affordable merch shop that celebrates Black, feminist, and bookish identities! 

Along with Café con Libros’ expansive range of Black feminist titles and merch, the bookstore also offers “one of the best cafes in Crown Heights”. The baristas are friendly and are more than willing to help you scan through their assortment of rainbow coded books. Not to mention that the space itself is a welcoming spot to chill with friends or to read a book. 

DeSuze works hard to make Café con Libros a safe place for all Black, feminist, and LGTBQIA+ identities. Not only is DeSuze creating a space for this community, but she is also reclaiming the place of the café. DeSuze explains in an interview with Black-Owned Brooklyn that, “A café is the number-one marker of gentrification in most communities of color, and I’ve had to wrestle with that and how people view me. Sometimes people will walk right past because they don’t believe the space is for them, and this is so incredibly painful.” DeSuze strives for her bookstore and café to be a place for celebration, chilling, and freedom where everyone feels they have a place.

In Reluctant Capitalists, Miller talks about how to describe community and within her other implications of community Miller says, “Community implies social bonds based on affective ties and mutual support […]”. Café con Libros is a bookstore for the Black, intersectional feminist, LGBTQIA+ community. Along with running the bookstore, DeSuze is a social worker, a professor of social work, and an anti-racist community organizer, which she says greatly impacts every decision she makes about the store. She carefully picks every aspect of the bookstore to cater to the feeling of acceptance and freedom within this community. The titles, events, and authors are handpicked by DeSuze to cater to this community. Even the name of the bookstore is an homage to DeSuze’s Afro-Latina roots. 

Another way that Café con Libros is a bookstore for the community is their Author and Community Events. Café con Libros invites authors to host book signings and readings, not only to promote their work but also to celebrate their work. You will find in many of their event descriptions, the main theme is celebration and community. The Café con Libros website describes their events as a space aimed to continue the growth process of the community, to open minds and hearts, and to build lasting relationships. 

Additionally, Café con Libros holds the Womxn of Color Book Club every fourth Sunday of the month in which they read books “written by, for and about WoC”. It is a dedicated space for Womxn of Color, specifically to “Be in our skin. Be in our joy. Be in our pain. And, be in community.” In the pandemic of 2020, the book club was moved to an online platform, allowing the bookstore to create an even bigger community than the one in the physical bookstore. 

Café con Libros is the bookstore of the community. Kalima DeSuze and her husband Ryan Cameron strive to unite the Black, intersectional feminist, LGBTQIA+ community with their love for books and coffee. Take a step into their bookstore, online or in person, and you can see the carefully crafted community DeSuze has created with her bookstore.